Vietnam labels San Jose group Viet Tan as terrorist

Published 4:13 pm, Friday, October 7, 2016

Vietnam has slapped a terrorism label on a San Jose-based organization that has opposed the nation’s Communist government for more than 30 years, and that responded scornfully Friday to its new status.

“The Hanoi regime is especially fearful of organized opposition and seeks to deter Vietnamese from joining in peaceful political advocacy,” the group known as Viet Tan, or the Vietnam Reform Party, said in a statement. “To justify its human rights abuses, Hanoi has often portrayed critics as engaging in terrorism, subversion and social unrest.”

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security announced the terrorist designation Tuesday and said anyone who joins the group or accepts its training or sponsorship “will be an accomplice in terrorism.” The ministry said Viet Tan had staged unsuccessful armed attacks in its early years, and now sends its members to Vietnam to stir up unrest.

Viet Tan was founded in 1982 by Hoang Co Minh, who had been a vice admiral for the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government that fell to Hanoi in 1975, ending the Vietnam War. He was killed in Laos in 1987, in what Vietnam’s government describes as a battle between its forces and a group of guerrillas trying to enter Vietnam and overthrow its government.

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Viet Tan has continued to oppose the government and call for its removal, but says its activity in Vietnam is entirely political and nonviolent. Three of its members, the group said Friday, are “serving long prison terms for their blogging and community organizing” inside the country.

Some announcements from the Vietnamese government are in the same vein. A recent posting by the official Vietnam News Agency announced jail sentences of two and three years to two men convicted of “propagandizing against the state.”

The two-year sentence was imposed on a man who “drew a reactionary slogan on the wall” of a police station in April 2015 “in response to the call of the Viet Tan reactionary group,” said the agency, which added that the man was later invited by Viet Tan to take part in a communications training course. The agency said the three-year term was given to a man who had regularly accessed antigovernment websites and last year “compiled and shared scores of articles distorting policies and guidelines of the Party and the state of Vietnam.”

In its statement Friday, Viet Tan said, “We challenge the Vietnamese authorities to publish on state media the full range of Viet Tan’s activities to empower activists, promote Internet freedom, and defend basic rights — and let the people of Vietnam decide whether Viet Tan is a threat.”